Finding lost relations: identifying our ephemera files

Art ephemera are an evocative resource that can document innovative art and convey diverse histories. This article looks at the relationship between such ephemera and contemporary art practices, and at the relative values given to ephemera by artists, curators and librarians and, in this context, considers integrated catalogues and online guides as methods of re-contextualising art ephemera in the library. Recent collaborative initiatives, and projects that identify and locate artists’ files are reviewed and three themes are identified: the biographical approach, interfaces for distributed catalogues and the integration of art and its documentation

Heterotopia: art ephemera, libraries and alternative space

Investigates the potential of a collection of art ephemera to represent contemporary art practices in a library, which are otherwise rarely documented. Art ephemera are particularly likely to record transient and informal organizations and associated contingent strategies from the unstable and fugitive terrain of ‘alternative’ art activities, which have been a vital part of contemporary practice. Their qualities, as art ephemera, give them a value as a source of potential histories, which might otherwise remain obscure. I am most concerned in this project, with art practices which are not object-based, which are tactical and contextual and in which the idea of ‘alternative space’ remains operative, taking place London in the late 1990s

Cataloguing artists' videos

Artist’s videos present some challenges to cataloguers. How to select the source of information, how to describe them in ways which will help library users to find them, and particularly how to facilitate subject access are matters addressed in this article. With reference to the artist’s video collections at Goldsmiths, I consider interpretations of the rules for cataloguing art documentation and moving image material and discuss how they can be applied to video works and art documentation from contemporary art practices

Art ephemera, aka "Ephemeral traces of 'alternative space': the documentation of art events in London 1995-2005, in an art library"

This research is based on reflexive practice as a subject librarian for visual art, concerned with representation (of artists) and context (of art practice and its representation) in the academic library, as a heterotopia. My thesis is that the aim to create an ‘alternative’ art space remained operative in London between 1995 and 2005, although the term was decried. The research addresses the problem of documentation of transient contemporary art practices, by collecting and analysing ephemera and developing a resource based upon them. Art ephemera are by-products of institutions, galleries, exhibitions, and curatorialactivities that may be significant in terms of criticality but which are often not recorded adequately and remain un-archived. The strategies of representation that ephemera mobilise take place at an interface of art aims and social structures, an area that has been a vital site of contemporary practice. I review major issues in contemporary criticism of the ‘avant-garde’ and ‘alternative’,showing the discourse of the alternative to be an ethical discourse about practice. Identifying citation as means of interpretation, I draw my account from a reading ofephemera in the chapters: “Citation, marginalia, mockery, fakes and tailpieces” where I identify visual and textual qualities of ephemera, “Artists, spaces and institutions,”where I present the themes of mapping London and self-institutionalisation, and “Counter to ?” where I report a distancing from counter-cultural aims and development of complex alternatives. I evaluate existing collections of art ephemera in libraries, projects to facilitate access to them, and cataloguing and collecting policies. I advocate use of catalogues to recontextualise ephemera. In conclusion, I present a complex notion of ‘alternative space’ in art practice as a space for dialogue with, rather than opposition to established institutions and circuits of contemporary art and I endorse collection of ephemera as a source for diverse histories

A visual arts perspective on open access institutional repositories

Open access digital repositories now enable researchers to communicate their research output by means of the WWW, contributing to the ‘culture of abundance’. However, repository development in the visual arts remains undeveloped. In this paper, based on my work on Goldsmiths Research Online in the SHERPA-LEAP project and as a subject librarian for visual cultures, I explore the qualities of research in the visual arts, which affect how we represent it in repositories. What is a visual arts perspective? - Research may be practice-based, documentation may be created specifically for the archive. The research environment extends beyond the university into the art world, the web and media. Visual artists are concerned with representation; context matters. How does the repository act in comparison to other contexts? How do the criteria of the academic research environment i.e. publication, validation, citation, peer review translate into the visual art sector? What constitutes an adequate representation of research? I will show examples of an exhibition, event/performance, lecture, video, installation, database, software and visual work and consider activities such as citation in literature, mimicry and mockery as citation, ephemerality, the online CV, gallery talks, teaching and blogs, with reference specifically to visual and multi-media research practices by researchers from Goldsmiths. Visual arts research produces diverse digital objects, which are often in complex, multimedia formats. What are the technical issues we need to address to enable us to present and preserve these materials? How do the conventions of the repository environment map onto this subject area? How do metadata standards developed in museums and galleries reflect concerns of these different domains? I give examples of the use of generic standards to help with decisions. My conclusion is that work in this area is at an early stage. I advocate a pragmatic approach, backed up with further reflexive research

The Lived Experience of Bipolar Disorder: A Systematic Review and Meta-Synthesis

The purpose of this meta-synthesis was to review the available qualitative research on the lived experience of persons with bipolar disorder in order to find common themes that may enhance practitioner understanding. In this meta-synthesis, limited to studies conducted in the United States, 12 studies involving 234 participants met the authors’ inclusion criteria, and the following four major crosscutting themes, with subthemes, were identified: the process of acceptance of the diagnosis; its negative impact on relationships; internal coping strategies; and reliance on social support. Implications of these findings for direct practice are explored

Goldsmiths Research Online and Open Access: an introduction for researchers

This booklet provides an overview of Goldsmiths’ institutional repository, Goldsmiths Research Online (GRO), as well as an introduction to key aspects of the Open Access (OA) philosophy and its relevance for researchers

Cataloguing artists' videos and DVDs: diversions and frictions (2nd draft 16/8/2005)

Draft guidelines produced by the authors, on behalf of the ARLIS UK & Ireland Cataloguing and Classification Committee, and presented at this workshop. The guidelines are based on MARC21 and AACR2, with other compatible guidelines for cataloguing moving image material, from the art libraries milieu. The authors highlight some of the difficulties of cataloguing this material in this format to provide a simplified guide

Physical Experiments of Tectonic Deformation and Processes: Building a Strong Community

The recent revolution in the analysis of physical experiments of tectonic processes has provided new quantitative tools to analyze their outcomes. Physical experiments using scaled analog models are unique in providing information on complex three-dimensional deformation where processes can be directly observed. These observations critically complement insights gained from field and analytical/numerical investigations. Recent innovations in rheologic testing, digital image processing, and data collection are revolutionizing how we use experiments to provide insight into crustal deformation. At the same time, we are seeing the benefits of physical experiments in classroom teaching by engaging students in hypothesis testing and hands-on laboratory experience. Strengthening of the community of physical experimentalists and instructors using analog materials to simulate tectonic processes will enhance our understanding of these processes, lend more power both to interpretations of field observations and to validation of numerical models, and deepen student understanding of tectonic mechanisms. A step toward a stronger community has been made with a recent workshop on physical modeling of tectonic processes, and this report is one outcome of that workshop

Open Access and the REF: Issues and Potential Solutions Workshop

This report provides a summary of the discussion and findings of the Open Access and the REF: Issues and Potential Solutions workshop held as part of the End-to-End Project. The workshop was highly interactive and feedback received indicated it was considered an excellent event, and that it was vital and useful to bring together various key stakeholders to discuss problems and procedures and develop ideas